Project 3 contd: Working with Colour

I've just returned home after five glorious days spent in Exmoor - the beautiful scenery inspired me to take lots of photos, and now that my daughter's healthy again, I feel motivated to move on with the course. I have some images for my first assignment, and plan to start processing them within the next couple of days. Meanwhile, there are a few more projects in the first section for me to work through.

Next on the list is 'working with colour'. The task was to take a photograph of an object, using the Auto White Balance (AWB) setting on the camera. I chose a handful of screws as my subject, placed them on my windowsill and photographed them using my macro lens. Here is the image (unedited except for conversion from RAW and resizing to post here):

When opening the image on the computer screen, the first thing I noticed was that there are about a dozen dust spots on my lens, I really must sort that out! Then I looked at colour. The background is white, but the camera has rendered it as a light-to-mid grey. I first thought that the camera may have been tricked into underexposing, as there are no really dark areas. However, when I placed my laptop next to the screws on the windowsill, I could see that actually the windowsill didn't look white to my eyes either. Although it doesn't look as dark as it does in the picture, it definitely appeared to my eyes as grey.

The shallow depth of field that I used for the shot was a mistake, as the aim was to produce a shot that was as accurate as possible. In 'real life', the objects obviously appeared sharper than they did in the image.

The third task was to print the photograph and compare this to the onscreen and the 'real' versions. Whereas the actual object and the monitor image were quite similar, the printed version was noticeably different. It was quite a lot darker, and when I held the printed image against the computer screen to compare them directly, it was immediately apparent that it was not just a minor difference.

When viewed apart, in different areas of the room, all three versions appeared acceptable. The print, although darker, still showed a fairly large tonal range, and as a 'standalone' image, it did not seem too dark.

So what have I learnt from this exercise? This has reinforced my knowledge that the camera does not always reproduce images accurately. I have previously noticed this when taking landscape shots, particularly those with high contrast. The camera seems to 'neutralise' the colours. Until I became used to this, I found it quite disappointing - a scene that had looked to me to be full of bright colours through the lens appeared on the computer screen as comparatively dull.

I have also learnt that I should not assume images will look the same in print as they do onscreen - I need to bear this in mind when processing my images.

After completing the tasks above, I decided to look through a photo album, and compare the prints with the onscreen versions. I saw for the first time that the printed versions were much darker than those onscreen. Having not completed the Level 1 course referred to in the course materials, I am not sure how to calibrate my monitor - I think this is something that I should look into in the near future.